Hi all, I'm just looking at the War Diary of the 59th A.T. (Duke of Connaught Hampshire) Reg't RA and in the process of changing over to Archers, each battery would be sent back to "GROAT" Would that be... "Group Responsible for Organization of Anti-Tank [units]"??? That's a wild guess on my part and it sounds a little too flippant. P.S. Any idea where I could find the official breakdown of W.E. EU/173/1? I infer from operations that it was three batteries entirely of towed artillery, and one battery of 3? troops of SPs.
GROAT Code name for SGT A J. Dallow, British radio operator of JEDBURGH team FRANCIS World War II Special Operations Forces, CODE AND COVER NAMES TD
That IS funny. Presumably also nothing to do with John O'Groats or for that matter, grain of any kind.
War Establishments are in WO 24 series at Kew. But are you sure about the EU part? Perhaps it should be "VII"? The first part of a WE reference is usually the volume number in Roman numerals. Lee
Well it does match the other WE codes I have seen related to SPs (EU/237/1 and EU/236/1) , but these are references from within WW2 documents... surely they wouldn't have the volume numbers prior to their collection in the archives? "Nov 30 | 0830 | One Tp 333 Bty left for BOURG LEOPOLD for re-organization to new W.E. EU/137/1."
The volume numbers were compiled by the War Office. But I did jump the gun there as some WEs had other prefixes like ME - Middle East.
Sorry, not really in the focus of my interest. This is what I can add: After WW II, War Establishment (after 01.08.1947 "War" was dropped) volumes got letters from "Overseas Commands with delegated Powers", approved by the War Office. BTA - (British Troops in Austria???) CM - Central Mediterranean (former volume XII) EA - East Africa (former volumes I AF - III AF) EU - Europe (former volume XIV) FE - Far East ME - Middle East (former volume VI) PRC - Polish Resettlement Corps SEA - South East Asia (former volume XIII) WA - West Africa (former volumes I AF - III AF) They are to be found in the WO 24 series, look from about volume 957 and above. For a certain period, several war establishments were known by both numbers (e.g.: VI/1530/1 equals ME/2570/1 - Tyre Workshop, R.E.M.E., M.E., A.C.I. 01.10.1947, with effect from 11.07.1947). Aixman
